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Community Members Petition For Guilford School Construction Proposal

Local community members spoke about why they feel a bond referendum to support improvements in Guilford County Schools should be on the November 2020 ballot. They gathered in front of the county courthouse before delivering a petition to commissioners. Courtesy of Melissa Hazzard/Communities United for Public Schools Facebook page.

A group of community members and educators gathered in front of the Guilford County Courthouse Tuesday to discuss capital improvement needs in the school district.  

The Guilford County Board of Education is asking county commissioners to put a $1.6 billion school construction bond on the Nov. 3 ballot.

This comes after a consulting group released a report that says nearly half the schools in the district are in poor or unsatisfactory condition.

GCS officials say the upgrades would touch every school and come in phases.

Despite uncertainties with budgets from the pandemic, local groups want the County Board of commissioners to fully support the amount requested by school leaders.

Melissa Hazzard is a parent of a GCS student and is with the group Communities United for Public Schools. 

So far, they've collected more than 1,500 signatures in their petition to commissioners.

“We want all of the schools funded and we want to make sure that children have access to safe, healthy, inspiring schools that aren't leaking and have mold issues,” says Hazzard. “There's just a lot of work to be done and we really want to press the commissioners to just allow the public to vote on this.”

Guilford County Commissioners will discuss the school construction bond proposal at their meeting on Thursday.  

*Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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